A British
private military company Aegis Defense Services, contracted by US
Department of Defense to provide security to Project and Contracting
Office (PCO), a division of the Department of Defense in Iraq. A
documentary by Danish director Mads Ellesøe reveals that
approximately 2,500 Sierra Leonean personnel who were recruited by
Aegis and other private security companies to work in Iraq included
former child soldiers.

“When
war gets outsourced, then the companies try to find the cheapest
soldiers globally,” Ellesøe said. “Turns out that that is
former child soldiers from Sierra Leone. I think it is important that
we in the west are aware of the consequences of the privatization of
war.”

James
Ellery, who was a director of Aegis Defense Services between 2005 and
2015, acknowledged that Aegis recruited personnel from Sierra Leone
because they were cheaper than Europeans. The firm, however, never
checked if they were former child soldiers, he said. According to
Ellery, it would be “quite wrong” to ask whether people had ever
been child soldiers, as it would penalize people for things they had
often been forced into doing. He pointed out that under UN rules,
child soldiers are not liable for war crimes.

Sierra Leone
was a convenient source of recruits because of “high
unemployment and a decent workforce”, he said.

Founded in
2002 by Tim Spicer, the former Scots Guards officer, notorious for
supplying weapons in Sierra Leone to support local government, Aegis
Defense Services is now led by Sir Nicholas Soames, a Tory MP and a
grandson of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The
documentary called “The Child Soldier’s New Job” will be
broadcasted on Denmark television on Monday, April 18.